Unitary metallic parts may be fabricated by forging and/or machining a solid block of material. The process of machining blocks, plates or other forms of blanks may be both time consuming and expensive because a relatively large percentage of the blank may become waste material in the form of machining chips. These existing processes may have other issues, including difficulty in achieving maximum material properties from precipitation hardened alloys and/or higher than desired residual stresses present in the blank caused by the processes used to produce the blank, such as, for example and without limitation, precipitation hardening. Additionally, in some cases, existing processes for manufacturing metallic alloy blanks may require larger than desired quantities of relatively high cost metallic alloys.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of fabricating engineered shapes from metallic alloys that reduces material waste, and reduces or nearly eliminates residual stresses in shaped parts.